Real Lifestyle Blog

Italy Recap: Part 2

This is the second part of our trip to Italy! If you haven’t already, you can read the first part here. Days four, five and six were so fun that I can’t wait to share, so let’s get started!

Day Four: Venice

On this day, we visited Museo Correr, which is a museum of the history of the Venetian Empire. This museum is part of the San Marcos Square. When you buy a ticket for this one, you can also use it to visit the Doge’s Palace (more on that later).

Part of the Museo Correr is the Emperor and Empress’s apartment. “Apartment” obviously means something very different to Venetian rulers.

Above is the ballroom and below is the mirror in the Empress’s changing room.

Next, we walked across the square to get to the Doge’s Palace. The Doge was the leader of Venice, kind of like a governor. This palace was truly beautiful. Everything was so grand and golden, and the attention to detail in every room was surreal.

The ceilings above are made of 14 karat gold, because what else would you use in a palace? After viewing these government rooms, we went down to the prison by walking across the Bridge of Sighs. This bridge got it’s name very literally, because the prisoners would sigh as they took their last look of the city. (The first photo is of the bridge and the second is a picture from the inside of the bridge.)

After the Doge’s Palace, we got a pasta bowl to-go and took it back to our hotel room. I had Alfredo and it was so yummy!

Next, we went out to find the Rialto Bridge. Unfortunately, it was under construction, so it wasn’t very visible. Also, it was the home of about 100 tourist trap booths. We decided to do some high-end window shopping and then go back to the hotel for some rest.

Finally, we went out for dinner, where I had ravioli. After dinner, we went on a cannoli hunt-it took a while, but it was so worth it!

Day 5: Milan

After breakfast, we took the water bus to the Venice Train station, where we had to wait on our train for quite some time. At 10:50am, we boarded the train! I’m so thankful that my mom got us First Class tickets, because we had a lot more room than the regular seats. She did this so that we could enjoy what would most likely be our only “long” train ride ever. (Also, her dad worked for the railroad when she was little, and so she wanted us to have a similar experience to what she had growing up.)

We ate lunch on the train and finally arrived in Milan around 1:35pm. The huge train station here officially opened in 1931 after many changes that were ordered by Benito Mussolini and other rulers.

We then took the Metro to our hotel. This hotel was so modern and fancy! I could’ve stayed there forever.

Once we were settled in, we went out to explore the area of the Duomo and the multitude of shops. While we were out, I bought a new pair of sunglasses, a phone case, and a hair clip.

For dinner, we tried out a place called “Mama Burger,” because I was seriously craving some American food. It was good, but the U.S. definitely makes the best burgers.

After we finished up here, we went on a Segway tour. This was fun, but I’m not going to lie, it was semi-embarrassing to be parading up and down the street on these things. People looked at us like we were crazy, but that’s okay because we got to see some hidden gems all over the city in half of the time. My favorite part was learning that all over Milan, there are “cat houses” where stray cats can stay and city-appointed “cat ladies” feed them everyday. Also, I found my favorite Gelato place with the best raspberry and dark chocolate gelato ever.

We ended our night here and went back to the hotel for some sleep, because we had a very early morning the next day!

Day 6: Milan

Before the sun was even up, we were out looking for the Milan Visitor’s Center. On the way, we stopped at a small cafe, where I tried iced coffee. It was nothing like iced coffee here. Yes, it was cold, but it did not taste very good. If you know me, you know I love iced coffee, but I could only stand a few sips of this one.

From the Milan Visitor’s center, we took a bus to the Cinque Terre, where we would visit two of the five villages. They’re both part of the same region, but look very different. The first stop was Manarola. We had only about an hour here, so we decided to walk to a popular lookout and photo spot.

The water here is seriously perfect. The photo of the water below doesn’t have a filter. Incredible, right?

While Manarola was great, our second stop in Monterosso al Mare was my favorite of the two. We had a little over two hours here. First, we got some lunch. The Cinque Terre is known for their pesto sauce and wine, so I obviously had to try both. They were both so delicious. This was one of my favorite meals on the whole trip.

Next, we went to take some pictures. This is part of the Italian Riviera and the water was freezing! I don’t know how everyone else was swimming.

I got more raspberry and chocolate gelato, because it’s the best combination ever.

After many long hours of travel back to Milan (by boat and then by bus), we decided to have dinner on the roof of the hotel, because it was late and we didn’t feel like searching for a restaurant. Until we started looking at the menu, we didn’t realize how fancy this place was. I had no idea what to order because I had no idea what anything was. So I chose a pasta with some kind of sauce. It turns out that it was a veal sauce. I had never had veal before, but it was really good.

We ended our second day in the fashion capital here!

Some of the photos I used in this post are credited to my talented younger sister, Erin. To see more of her photos, check out her Instagram!